Health roundup: Weight loss has mixed results for diabetics

Losing weight didn't do much to help obese people with type 2 diabetes reduce their risk of suffering cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes.

But dropping the pounds helped these patients in many other ways, according to the authors of a large study on the subject.

The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and involving more than 5,100 patients at 16 centers across the country, was published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, led by Rena R. Wing at Brown University and Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I., sought to answer whether an intensive program of caloric reduction, physical activity and counseling would reduce the risk of cardiovascular events. The answer was such a definitive "no" that the study was halted last September before completion.

Among the intervention group, the incidence rate of cardiovascular events was 1.83 per 100 "person-years," compared with 1.92 among the control group; those patients only received education about their diabetes.

Also, intervention-group patients couldn't keep the weight off long-term. They lost 8.6 percent of body weight in the first year, compared with 0.7 percent for the control group. The intervention group regained weight and ended up with a loss of 6.0 percent by study's end, compared with 3.5 percent for the control group. The control group actually showed more improvement in LDL (bad cholesterol) levels.

Still, the intervention group, in addition to losing more weight and shrinking their waistlines faster than the control group, was less likely to be treated with insulin; had lower levels of glycated hemoglobin, a measure of blood-plasma glucose concentration; and reported reductions in sleep apnea and depression, as well as better quality of life.

One reason the authors posited for the lack of improvement in cardiovascular-event risk was that it might take even more weight loss to make a difference. The patients' mean body-mass index was 36.0, which is equivalent to a 5-foot-11 person weighing 251 pounds.

ALZHEIMER'S, CANCER DON'T MIX

Some older people develop Alzheimer's and others get cancer, but usually not at the same time, according to a study published in the new issue of Neurology.

Researchers in Milan, Italy, studied more than 204,000 people age 60 and older in Italy. During the six-year study period, 21,451 people developed cancer, while 2,832 developed Alzheimer's disease. Yet only 161 had both diseases.

According to the numbers, the risk of cancer was cut in half for people with Alzheimer's and the risk of Alzheimer's was reduced by 35 percent for people with cancer.

The study's author, Dr. Massimo Musicco, said that since the risk of developing either Alzheimer's or cancer increases exponentially with age, understanding the "mechanisms" behind this inverse relationship could lead to a better understanding of how to treat both diseases.

KIDS NEED A CONSISTENT BEDTIME

Parents with young children are no doubt getting more relief by the day, as the blazing-sun-at-8 p.m. effect slowly diminishes.

But aside from parental sanity, there's another benefit to keeping a consistent bedtime for kids: Doing so might boost brain power, improving learning and academic performance.

Getting kids into a regular sleep pattern at a young age seems particularly important, according to a study published this week in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, which examined the household routines of 11,000 British 7-year-olds. Such visits were made when children were 3, 5 and 7.

The study noted the irregular bedtimes were most common at age 3; about 20 percent of kids at that age had varying bedtimes. Those kids, by the time they turned 7, tended to have lower scores in reading, math and spatial awareness. If the varying times began at age 5, there was no pronounced negative effect.

The study was further evidence that reduced or disrupted sleep, especially at key junctures in a child's development, could "have important impacts on health throughout life."

MS SYMPOSIUM

The 13th annual Multiple Sclerosis Symposium will be held Saturday at the Doubletree Santa Ana, 201 E. MacArthur Blvd., near John Wayne Airport.

The event, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., will feature physicians and other experts who will discuss the latest research and treatment options for MS.

It's sponsored by the National MS Society's Pacific South Coast Chapter and the Fountain Valley MS Center at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center.